Australia

Latest News

49786111Fact sheet on Australia, issued in occasion of the Europe Day celebrationFact sheet on Australia, issued in occasion of the Europe Day celebration/factsheets/docs/factsheets_europe_day_2014/factsheet_australia_en.pdf05/09/2014 00:00:0005/09/2014 00:00:0005/09/2014 00:00:00nulldate2014050900090126248c74a0ceN090126248c74a0ce/factsheets/docs/factsheets_europe_day_2014/factsheet_australia_en.pdf1335497pdfY/factsheets/docs/factsheets_europe_day_2014/factsheet_australia_en.pdf1/factsheets/docs/factsheets_europe_day_2014/factsheet_australia_en.pdf/factsheets/docs/factsheets_europe_day_2014/factsheet_australia_zz.pdfNID_INTERNALNN

The EU and Australia are like-minded partners who see increasingly eye-to-eye on key international issues. Relations are founded on strong historical and cultural links. The EU-Australia Partnership Framework [86 KB] , adopted at the annual Foreign Ministers’ meeting held in Paris on 29 October 2008, provides a solid and up-to-date basis for the bilateral relationship in the years to come.

The first update to the Partnership Framework [185 KB] , including a review of what has been achieved so far, was adopted at the Foreign Ministers' meeting held in Stockholm on 8 October 2009. The Partnership Framework is an action-oriented document emphasising practical cooperation. Although trade remains an important underpinning for the bilateral relationship, the overall political and economic relationship has over the years matured and developed more broadly to focus on global and regional challenges such as environment and climate change, energy, security and counter terrorism, stability in the Asia-Pacific region and cooperation in the WTO. Cooperation and coordination takes place at all levels, including annual Foreign Ministers’ consultations, annual Senior Officials Meetings alternating between Brussels and Canberra and a range of sectoral dialogues (trade, agriculture, environment, etc).